1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the authentication of volume mount points, and in particular the ability of an operating system to selectively accept or reject a volume mount point request for media based on a configurable set of rules.
2. Description of Prior Art
Individuals, corporations and governments face an increasing threat from within. Unethical individuals have at their disposal a multitude of high volume storage mediums available by simply walking into a local electronics store. Anyone can pay several hundred dollars or less to purchase storage devices that are highly resistant to detection. These devices assuredly help simplify the act of corporate and government espionage and greatly facilitate the proliferation of computer viruses, electronic Trojan Horses, and similar objects of computer mass infiltration. Even institutions that employ security checkpoints where backpacks and briefcases are searched and everyone must walk through a metal detector face the daunting challenge of detecting and deterring someone from walking out the front door with 256 MB, 512 MB, 2 GB, 4 GB or more of business intelligence, classified drawings, or sensitive financial documents on a device that is roughly the size of a clasp on a brazier.
Undoubtedly plug-and-play hard drives, palm-sized mobile storage solutions, infrared and radio frequency (RF) over-the-air digital data communications are now pervasive in today's society. As the popularity and number of these types of devices continue to grow, enterprise Information Technology (IT) departments, as well as a growing consumer base, are demanding methods to authenticate and trust certain physical devices while rejecting access to other physically identical devices. Obtaining such authentication and trust has to be accomplished in a way that does not compromise business productivity. To illustrate by example, consider employee A, who steps away from a physically secured laptop computer. Visitor B is able to quickly plug a USB flash drive into the computer. Visitor B may quickly copy trade secrets from the computer to the USB flash drive, or may download a computer virus from the USB flash drive to the computer. Visitor B is able to complete these tasks and remove the USB flash drive prior to employee A's return. Employee A will have little chance to know that business intelligence was taken, nor that a virus was implanted.